1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to box-frame belt buckle with a rear positioned storage compartment for holding various items such as a magnesium block, flint, and striker for use during outdoor survival maneuvers.
2. Background of the Prior Art
When deep in the outdoors, whether on military exercises, hunting, or during survival maneuvers, certain items are essential. Among the many items that are needed to survive in the wilderness for an extended period of time, are tools that allow a fire to be started. A fire is indispensable to cook meals, possibly sterilize water, and provide warm and light. While matches and lighters are the fire starters of choice for many, each has certain drawbacks. Matches need to be kept dry in order to ignite and remain ignited for sufficient duration. Wet matches need a considerable length of time in order to dry out, if that is even possible, in order to become usable to start a fire. Similarly, if a lighter gets wet, the small flint, which tends to be somewhat internal to most lighters, also needs a considerable amount of time to dry out prior to becoming effective for its intended job. This means that care must be taken to keep such implements dry, which care is not always available during wilderness survival. Additionally, both matches and lighters, with their rather bulky fuel requirements, are essentially a finite resource.
As a result, many true survivalists rely on the ancient flint and striker method of fire starting wherein a strike material, such as a piece of steel such as the person's knife, is struck against a fire block, namely flint, onto a small pile of tinder, which may be produced using the steel blade by shaving of small bits off of a small magnesium block. The strike of the steel against the flint produces sparks, which ignite the tinder and thereby start a fire. This fire starting system takes little time to learn, and can be used in almost any conditions. If the flint becomes wet, the surface can be quickly dried in order to allow sparks to be generated therefrom. As the fire starting fuel is compact yet voluminous in its fire starting ability, the system does not run out of fuel in the way a lighter does. Flint, steel, and a magnesium block make the survivalist self-sufficient in terms of fire starting capability.
The next question for the survivalist is where to store the flint and magnesium block. While a camper can simply throw the items into his or her backpack without much thought, true wilderness survivalists travel light and do not have the storage luxuries of a typical camper or hiker. Some survivalists place the flint and magnesium block into their pants pockets. However, this valuable area of clothing real estate is often occupied by other necessities such as a compass or canteen. Additionally, as the flint and magnesium block tend to be very small, they can unknowingly fall out of their storage pocket when the survivalist retrieves another larger item from the same pocket.
What is needed is a storage system for storing a flint and magnesium block for a lean equipped wilderness survivalist which does not take up on-person storage real estate that is reserved for other needed items and which minimizes the risk that the flint and magnesium block will inadvertently become lost. Such a storage system must not hinder the survivalist in anyway and must be easy to utilize.